Kitchen drain jetting: clearing grease buildup from residential and commercial kitchen lines.
Kitchen drains are the highest-grease drain in any home or food service operation. Even with careful habits, cooking fat, oil, and grease find their way into drain lines — solidifying as they cool and building up on pipe walls over time. When snaking is no longer keeping the drain clear, jetting is the appropriate solution.
Why kitchen drains clog differently than bathroom drains
Bathroom clogs are typically hair and soap scum close to the drain opening — a physical accumulation that collects at a predictable point. Kitchen clogs are usually distributed buildup along the interior of the pipe — a coating of solidified grease that gradually narrows the pipe diameter along its length. This is why snaking a kitchen drain often provides only temporary relief: the snake punches through the thickest spot but the coating on the walls remains and re-narrows the pipe faster the second time.
What hydro jetting does for kitchen drains
High-pressure water with a rotating nozzle blasts the grease coating off the pipe wall and flushes it downstream. The cleaning is circumferential — not just a path through the center of the pipe — restoring close to original interior diameter. Results last significantly longer than snaking for grease-based kitchen clogs.
Commercial kitchen lines
Commercial kitchens produce grease loads that dwarf residential kitchens. A properly maintained commercial kitchen drain system includes regular jetting on a schedule — not reactive service when a backup occurs. Monthly jetting is common for high-volume operations; quarterly for moderate-volume kitchens. The camera inspection after each service establishes the right interval for your specific operation.
What to do about recurring kitchen drain clogs
If your kitchen drain has been snaked more than once in the past year and the clog keeps coming back, jetting is the appropriate next step. After jetting, changing the habits that caused the buildup — no grease down the drain, hot water after washing dishes, drain strainer to catch food particles — slows the rate of re-accumulation.
Call Sunburst Environmental at 678-799-4389 for same-day service across Metro Atlanta and North Georgia, or request a free estimate online.